By Sifu Lloyd Fridenburg

Editorial

Wow, to say that it seems like yesterday that I first picked up the phone and called Sifu Bob Schneider about taking Kung Fu classes would be an understatement. Kung Fu had always been on my to-do list but I had just never taken that first step. It was a step that led to the most rewarding years of my life. Both me and Sifu Eric celebrate 25 years at WKFA this spring and I’d like to take this opportunity to share some highlights and changes with you, my Kung Fu family.

WKFA is testament to the fact that Kung Fu is a journey, not a destination and that a calculated change is something to be embraced; not shunned. This is definitely not the school I joined all those years ago; we have evolved to meet the needs of modern society while never losing sight of our traditional roots. We teach Kung Fu, we only teach Kung Fu, and we have resisted the temptation to expand into other disciplines for the sake of profit.

Something that hasn’t changed is our expectation (especially for those attaining the rank of green or higher) that you are here because you want to become a martial artist. We do not have men and women, we do not have old and young, we do not have big and small; we have martial artists and the expectations are the same for all. Everything that students attain they earn, nothing is given away, that’s why we have the best Kung Fu school and the best instructors anywhere.

When Eric and I began our Kung Fu training the highest rank in the school was green and we had no students over 40. As a result senior students were expected to assume a greater leadership role than we have today. Green sash students were expected to conduct warm-ups and even lead some classes. How things have changed.

Here are a few of my personal highlights:

• Our first board breaking seminar was held during the summer of 1989. There were a few scrapped knuckles and a few bruises, but only one broken knuckle. As a white sash (yes we used to start at white, not red) it was one of the most intimidating things I had ever done in my life, but how rewarding it was when I punched through my first board. I think that overcoming that obstacle was my first real step in a long journey.
• We were always expected to arrive early for class and run at least 1km before class for our warm-up. I must confess that I absolutely hated running…still do.

Master Pan Qing Fu and Sifu Lloyd Fridenburg

• In the early 90s Master Pan Qing Fu came into our lives and for me this was the most significant turning point for WKFA. Until that time we were loosely modelled on the teaching methodology of Kitchener Kicks, where Sifu Bob trained under Sigung Ron Day. Master Pan instilled Kung Fu values in us and laid the foundation for us to embrace traditional Chinese Kung Fu. He lived with Sifu Bob for two years and during that period both Sifu Eric and I became quite close with him, often being treated to impromptu private classes after having him over for dinner. Try doing the 5 Tiger Staff form on a full stomach, under the watchful and critical eye of one of the top martial artists in the world.

  Master Pan not only developed our FF form but significantly changed our Tiger, Leopard, Dragon, and staff form. Changes to many of our other forms came as a direct result of Sifu Bob’s training with Master Pan. That’s why our forms look very different from Kitchener Kicks forms, even though that is where Sifu Bob learned Kung Fu. If you want to learn more about the roots of Master Pan watch the movie Iron & Silk or read the book by the same name.

• That friendship lead to Sifu Eric and I being invited to play the role of Pan’s students in the movie “Talons of the Eagle”. The Ferocious Fist form was created by Master Pan for the movie; he also choreographed all of the fight scenes. Learning the FF form was one of the most gruelling training regimens I’ve ever undertaken. Mistakes were not tolerated and we would work small sections of the form until everyone could do it perfectly. We trained for hours at a time with Master Pan and dedicated just as much time on our own. I gained a new respect for actors when we were on set filming for about 30 hours over two days.
  

  Movie “Talons of the Eagle”

• Our blue sash grading was also the first black sash grading in the history of WKFA. We knew that this grading would be a big deal, but nothing could have prepared us for the reality of the day. It was a tough and in some ways brutal grading. Many observers were questioning their sanity and felt that attaining black at WKFA was the impossible dream. The sparring, for Scott anyway, was full contact and kickboxers from Kitchener Kicks were brought in to spar with him. As time progressed we realized that this was the exception rather than the rule. In the end Scott Weiler became our first black sash instructor.
• I believe it was 1994 when we graduated our first female black sash. Not to diminish the accomplishments of our newer female instructors but when Bev Burtwell tested for black it was not a common occurrence for a woman to attain the rank of black sash, in any school. Up until the 90s martial arts really was a male dominated activity. Acceptance of women in the martial arts is something that has really changed for the better over the last 20 or so years.
• It was soon after our brown sash grading that full colour sashes were introduced, starting with brown. Before that we used the red sash with stripes the same as we do for our junior students.
  

  Sifu Eric Kraushaar breaking concrete.

• Then came our black sash grading in 1995. Somehow we always managed to be involved in milestone gradings. This was the first all brown/black advanced grading that we conducted. A brown/black grading is not a common occurrence; Kitchener Kicks has only held one brown/black grading in the history of their school, it also happened to be Sifu Bob’s black sash grading. We have held two at WKFA, but the second wasn’t to come for another 17 years.
  

  Early Training Session

• It wasn’t until 2005 that Sifu Bob introduced our degree system for black sash instructors. Both Eric and I were honoured to receive our 3rd degree at the last Christmas party that Sifu Bob would attend.
  

  Master Ron Day of Kitchener Kicks and Sifu Bob Schneider of Waterloo Kung-Fu Academy

• We used to have many more social or semi social events for adults. One of the highlights was always Kung Fu weekend at the Kraushaar’s home away from home just outside Hanover. Students arrived with tents sleeping bags, food and libations for a weekend of fun and training. Events included runs through the bush (I always tended to arrive late to avoid this treat), raft sparring, breaking, forms in the sand, sparring on the grass, and practical self-defense, including a hundred ways to throw dirt in someone’s eyes. We always managed to have at least one completely social adult event, often a BBQ and campfire at Sifu Eric’s lot near Conestoga. I love the kids and it’s great to be inclusive of our youth and junior students but adult only activities have suffered. I’ll lay down a challenge to the adult LT members; get some adult only social events planned.
  

  Black Belt Grading

• Sifu Bob Schneider moulded WKFA as his own skills and personality evolved over the years. He was our teacher, our mentor, but mostly our friend. His untimely death came as a stomach blow; he was Waterloo Kung Fu. After the initial shock began to fade, our thoughts turned towards the future and the school could have taken many directions at that point but we had a young Sifu that wasn’t overly enamoured with the life of a chartered accountant and took over the reins of WKFA.
• Sifu Dave is a committed, dedicated leader and the school has grown significantly under his leadership, without sacrificing the roots that Sifu Bob nurtured. The most significant change is in the children’s programs. We probably have about double the number of youth, junior, and Little Ninja students than we had when he took over the reins. And, having kids of his own has allowed Sifu to show more empathy towards parents than was evident before he took over the school.

Thanks for the Memories!

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By Sifu David Moylan, Owner, Waterloo Kung-Fu Academy

Sifu’s Corner

I’m putting pen to paper (or whatever the digital equivalent is…fingers to keys I guess) following our annual Intermediate/Advanced grading on May 24. I would like to personally congratulate the eight successful grading candidates. They proved that hard work and preparation pays off with exceptional performances all around. Tarana treated us to one of the most fluid and beautiful homemade forms in recent memory. We now have three new blue sashes, four new sihings (brown sashes) and one new black sash. Sifu Anne solidified ten years of consistent and dedicated training with an inspiring show of discipline, resolve and spirit. She is a very mature young lady and an exemplary martial artist that I proudly welcome to our Black Sash team.

When I last wrote, the Winter Olympics had just concluded. After one of the longest and harshest winters in recent memory, the spring brought our own in-house competition, the 17^th Annual Shiai held on April 12th. This year was our most successful, as approx. 100 competitors put on personal best performances. A huge thanks to Sifu Patti, Sihing Gunther and everyone that lent their time to help the event run as smoothly as it did!

On the item of thanks – I would like to extend mine to Sifu Sydney and our Leadership Team volunteers for running another very well received Five-Animal March Break Camp. This year was our best attended! Following, a lot of parents inquired about a summer camp. We won’t be holding one this year, however, we do run all of our regular curriculum classes. The summer is prime time for training kung-fu. Private classes during the day are also quite popular. If you have questions about your membership over the summer or are interested in extra classes, please be in touch.

Under the guidance of Sifus Cory, Greg and Mark, our Competition Team rose to new heights this season. We had exceptionally strong showings at the CKKA tournament in Kingston on March 22^nd, the Dragon Warrior Challenge on Apr.26 and culminating with Karate/Kung-Fu Maynia at Conestoga College on May 3^rd. My respect goes to all our competitors who represented themselves and the Academy admirably. Thank you Sifus, for putting your time and energy into running exciting and fun weekly practices. Everyone is already looking forward to next season!

Our Lion Dance Team has been practicing diligently under the guidance of Sifu Robin. We made our public debut at the May 3 tournament to a huge crowd. If you know of anyone in the community looking for a lion dance performance – we are officially eager and ready!

Thank you to everyone who came out and lent a hand at our semi-annual Maintenance Day held the Saturday of the May long weekend. We touched up a lot of the paint and covered some good territory to have the Academy looking tip top for the grading and season ahead!

The upcoming months will be as exciting as any. Our Demonstration Team has been practicing hard and will be performing at all four of the Open Streets events in Uptown Waterloo this summer. Our Annual Adult Breaking Seminar will be held June 24^TH and stay tuned for the summer picnic announcement.

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by Sifu Sarah Gawley

Youth Student’s Corner

You sit down with your legs crossed, back straight and close your eyes. Slowly, you take a deep breath in, then let it out. Every student reading this can tell me exactly what you’re doing: meditating. But what is that exactly?

Meditating is focusing your attention on what you’re doing at that moment and absolutely nothing else. We try to clear our minds of all thought so that we can just be in the present moment, or in other words, be here now. There are a variety of ways to meditate.

Everyone should be familiar with the way that we practice meditation in class. You try to keep your thoughts only on your breath going in and out, either by repeating the words “breathe in” and “breathe out”, or by imagining your breath going in your nose and out your mouth (maybe air you haven’t breathed in yet is red and breath that has left your body is blue). Personally, I picture pulling my rib cage up and my lungs getting bigger as I breathe in. Don’t try all of them at once though! Pick only one and focus on that – focusing on a single concept for longer periods of time is hard work and trains your brain.

A lot of elements of meditation are similar to paying attention in class (school or kung fu). Things can distract you, like a noise off in the distance, or the desire to scratch an itch. In meditation, we encourage you to put aside those thoughts and keep your mind trained on the single thought of breathing in and out. In class, we also want you to ignore those urges and focus only on what Sifu is telling you to do. Right now, it might be something as simple as holding a closed stance – it doesn’t seem like a big deal if you fidget, right? But you should train like it is real because someday you may need that focus to safely train with weapons as a whole class – if one person steps out of line, they’ll be in the way of another person’s weapon!

There are also other ways of meditation you can try on your own if you want to expand your focus. One neat exercise you can try on your own time is to lay down flat and close your eyes. Start from the top of your head and relax all the muscles under your hair, just like you’d unclench your fist. Next, work down relaxing the muscles on your forehead, eyes and eyelids, cheeks and mouth. Spend at least five seconds relaxing each body part before moving on to a new one. Keep going until even your toes are relaxed, like your whole body is a giant noodle that’s been cooked way too long!

Remember the second rule of concentration: Focus your mind! Kung Fu may be about punching and kicking, but the most important body part we develop are our brains.

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By Sifu Mark Jolley

Junior Student’s Corner

How much do you know about the Waterloo Kung-Fu Academy? In this article, I thought we could visit some trivia to get new students better acquainted with the school and as a review for longer term students. Some of the answers might seem easy, others hopefully will make you think.

1. What form was developed for a movie, and then was put into the school curriculum?
2. What form used to be in the adult program, but was moved only to the Junior/Youth program. (Hint it was moved to make room for the form in question
3. When bowing, what do the hands formation symbolize? (When you signed up, Sifu gave you a handout with this information in it.)
4. What are the five animals we study at WKFA? What does each one represent?
5. How far apart width wise should your feet be in a forward stance?
6. If Sifu is in his office and is meeting with someone, is it acceptable to say good bye, even though he is talking to someone or is on the phone. True or False?
7. How many kiais (key eyes) are there in the Spear Hand form?
8. How many steps are there in the Single Step Form?
9. What part of the foot do you strike with for a sidekick? Is the foot pointed or flexed?
10. What is the height of the punches in four count punching?
11. In a front snap kick, how many parts are in the kick?
12. In the Sequence of Kicks, what is the target of the first punch?
13. When you see any Black Sash at the club (whether you know them or not), what do you do? And why?
14. Why do you have to do pushups, abs and squats? (The answer is not because the instructors are mean!)
15. What are the heads at the back of the Kwoon called? What are they for?
16. What does Kung-Fu mean?
17. What does Shaolin mean?
18. Bonus question: What is Sifu’s favourite weapon?

If you are stuck on any questions, don’t be afraid to ask any instructor, leadership team member, or other students. I will post the answers on the bulletin board in the weight room. Good luck!

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By Sifu Rebecca Knapp

Adult Student’s Corner

In Part 1, we talked about the pervasiveness of this concept in kung fu, and we discussed some different facets of respect, in a quest for a deeper understanding of its meaning. Onward…

Why is respect important?

• Respect keeps us from hurting what we ought to value.
• Much of the universal values and virtues that affirm our human dignity, and contribute to the good of the individual and society are derived from the values of respect and responsibility.
• We need respect to successfully work together–whether you are on a project at work, or countries coming together to solve the world’s problems. We can’t make meaningful, sustainable progress as individuals, a
• group, a society, a country, or a world, without mutual respect.
• From a kung fu perspective, respect is a pre-cursor to trust. This is a place where people can be seriously hurt, and their training can be limited, in the absence of trust. Think about having to partner with someone you do not trust. Think about taking direction from a Sifu if there is no respect. It is important as fellow students, and critical as instructors, to foster respect, so we can support our traditions, and create an atmosphere of trust.
• Most importantly, being respectful is simply the right thing to do–it makes everyone feel good at the end of the day.

Thoughts on Being Respectful

Recognize that the desire to be respected is universal. There are, however, individual and cultural nuances that have an impact on a person’s perception of respect.

Respect is a given in our academy. Start there.

Error on the side of collectively respectful behaviour: Please and thank-you, pardon me, May I help you, excuse me, shaking hands/bowing, paying attention, using appropriate language and behaviour, maintaining personal space, not being suggestive or overpowering, maintaining neutrality, and acceptance vs. judgement…just to name a few! Above all, make it genuine, or don’t bother.

You don’t have to like someone to treat them respectfully. No one can make you like another person, but as a citizen of our society and a member of this academy, we can insist that you treat everyone in a respectful manner.

Remember that acceptance does not equal agreement. You can accept a person, even if you do not agree with his/her ideals, values, principles and opinions. If you can accept people as they are, then you will be able to treat them with respect. Think of it this way: That person is not my friend or is not like me, or does not share my beliefs, values etc, but he/she is a human being with a right to his/her own opinions, feelings and preferences, and even if they are in conflict with mine, I do not have the right to treat him/her with anything other than genuine respect.

In its simplest terms, it’s back to The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Not so complicated after all!

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By Sifu Greg Meinzinger

Adult Student’s Corner

Physical balance isn’t the only form of balance a martial arts student should hone….

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines balance as follows:

bal·ance noun \ba-lən(t)s\

• the state of having your weight spread equally so that you do not fall
• the ability to move or to remain in a position without losing control or falling
• a state in which different things occur in equal or proper amounts or have an equal or proper amount of importance

Balance in Kung Fu is more often than not associated with the physical sense of the word. In fact, from the day a new student walks onto the kwoon we begin to help them understand their bodies in order to develop, amongst other things, balance.

But physical balance isn’t the only form of balance a martial arts student should hone….

Balance your RESPONSIBILITIES

Whether you are in high school, university or working full-time we all occasionally find conflict with our Kung Fu training schedule. Even when you are preparing for a high sash grading, it is important not to neglect your other responsibilities. People are depending on you, and as a Kung Fu student it is important that you show them that you take all your responsibilities seriously. Your Kung Fu training should be one of your areas of focus, but it needs to be balanced with your future goals and the ones you love.

Balance your TRAINING

Kung Fu training challenges your body in many ways; strength; flexibility; speed; agility to name just a few. In class we go through great lengths to provide numerous drills and exercises to help you develop your body and increase your skill. In order to accelerate your progress, consider balancing your Kung Fu training with other physical activities such as; weight training; running; swimming; yoga or even meditation classes. Each of these activities will provide you with benefits that are transferrable to your Kung Fu, leverage them to get the results you want.

Balance your HEALTH

There is no doubt that the training you receive at Waterloo Kung Fu Academy can be rigorous at times. In fact, I can safely say that there is always something that I feel is tired, sore or worse… injured. If you do suffer an injury in training, it is vitally important to listen to your body. Let your Sifu know about your situation so they can suggest or permit a modification. If serious enough, take time off to let your body heal, being careful not to rush back to soon just so you can “make that next grading list”. An early return can set you back further then if you had you simply taken a little extra time. If you find yourself in this situation, discover balance by, working your forms in your mind, performing your hand techniques sitting down or any number of creative options.

In the end, each of our situations are unique to ourselves, and it is our own responsibility to find our balance. Sometimes it is not easy, but neither is Kung Fu….

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By Sifu Lorna Jones

Parent’s Corner

One of the most wonderful things about Waterloo Kung Fu Academy is that we try very
hard to adhere to old traditions and values. Sometimes, learning the proper protocol can be slightly frightening for the parents as well as for the children. Most parents tell us that they bring their children to us to help them to learn respect and discipline. At WKFA, we firmly believe that everyone can help teach these principles. Here are a few points to help everyone understand some of the guidelines and expectations at the school.

• Cellphones are not to be used in the common areas of the academy. If you need to make or receive a call, please go outside. If you need to text, bbm or email, please do so respectfully in either the waiting room or the bathroom. This is out of respect for everyone. Please put phones on silent before entering the academy.
• Students should carry their own equipment into the school. Unless there is a situation with broken limbs, or the student is already on the floor assisting, students are responsible for their own equipment. This includes labeling it and making sure it is in good working order. You’ll be helping them by not helping them.
• Please wait for your children in the parents’ waiting room. It is air conditioned, which will be a great comfort soon!! Please make sure the door remains shut to the parents’ waiting room to keep it comfortable and keep the costs down.
• Being on time is one of the greatest demonstrations of respect. On the other side, being consistently late for class is disruptive and disrespectful. If there is a specific reason your child may be late, this should be communicated in advance. Your child will be given pushups for joining class late, and any student that is late by over 15 minutes will not be allowed to participate in class. If your child is dropped off over 15 minutes late and no one is there to take them home, they will stay in the kwoon and sit to watch the class, but they will not be allowed participate
• Please read the grading letters carefully. There are certain pieces of protocol that we expect the students to adhere to in a grading. The letter clearly outlines the expectations. If part of the grading requirement is not met, the grading results will be withheld and not given on grading day. This might be the result of things like a late essay, an expired student card, missing or incorrect grading fee, or not having the grading envelope correctly prepared. If your child does not meet the requirements in that letter, they will not get their new belt or sash on grading day and it is non-negotiable. This also applies to the adult students.

We do have a lot of traditions and expectations at Waterloo Kung Fu Academy. This is an amazing link to our lineage and to the days of respect and honour! I hope this helps to clarify some of the points, but if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to discuss them with Sifu or any instructor. We will all be happy to explain the protocols.

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“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover!” ~ Mark Twain

Who let the mouse loose?!
May 24 Grading photos courtesy of Vincent Afrouzi

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